# 2023–24 DFB-Pokal

The 2023–24 DFB-Pokal was the 81st season of the annual German football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 11 August 2023 with the first of six rounds and ended on 25 May 2024 with the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, a nominally neutral venue, which has hosted the final since 1985. The DFB-Pokal is considered the second-most important club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship. The DFB-Pokal is run by the German Football Association (DFB).
The two-time defending champions were Bundesliga side RB Leipzig, after they had defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 2–0 in the previous final, but they were eliminated in the second round by VfL Wolfsburg. Bayer Leverkusen won their second title after defeating 1. FC Kaiserslautern 1–0 in the final.
The winner of the DFB-Pokal would normally have earned automatic qualification for the league phase of the 2024–25 edition of the UEFA Europa League. However, Leverkusen had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League as winners of the Bundesliga, so their spot went to the team in sixth place, while the league's UEFA Conference League play-off round spot went to the seventh-placed team. Leverkusen also qualified for the 2024 edition of the DFL-Supercup at the start of the next season, where they faced the runners-up of the 2023–24 Bundesliga, VfB Stuttgart.

## Participating clubs

The following teams qualified for the competition:
| Bundesliga the 18 clubs of the 2022–23 season | 2. Bundesliga the 18 clubs of the 2022–23 season | 3. Liga the top 4 clubs of the 2022–23 season |
| FC Augsburg Hertha BSC Union Berlin VfL Bochum Werder Bremen Borussia Dortmund Eintracht Frankfurt SC Freiburg TSG Hoffenheim 1. FC Köln RB Leipzig Bayer Leverkusen Mainz 05 Borussia Mönchengladbach Bayern Munich Schalke 04 VfB Stuttgart VfL Wolfsburg | Arminia Bielefeld Eintracht Braunschweig Darmstadt 98 Fortuna Düsseldorf Greuther Fürth Hamburger SV Hannover 96 1. FC Heidenheim 1. FC Kaiserslautern Karlsruher SC Holstein Kiel 1. FC Magdeburg 1. FC Nürnberg SC Paderborn Jahn Regensburg Hansa Rostock SV Sandhausen FC St. Pauli | SV Elversberg VfL Osnabrück Wehen Wiesbaden 1. FC Saarbrücken |
| Representatives of the regional associations 24 representatives of 21 regional associations of the DFB, qualified (in general) through the 2022–23 Verbandspokal |||
| Baden Astoria Walldorf Bavaria FV Illertissen (CW) SpVgg Unterhaching (RB) Berlin Makkabi Berlin Brandenburg Energie Cottbus Bremen FC Oberneuland Hamburg Teutonia Ottensen Hesse FSV Frankfurt | Lower Rhine Rot-Weiss Essen Lower Saxony Atlas Delmenhorst (3L/RL) TuS Bersenbrück (Am.) Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Rostocker FC Middle Rhine Viktoria Köln Rhineland Rot-Weiß Koblenz Saarland FC 08 Homburg Saxony Lokomotive Leipzig | Saxony-Anhalt Hallescher FC Schleswig-Holstein VfB Lübeck South Baden SV Oberachern Southwest Schott Mainz Thuringia Carl Zeiss Jena Westphalia FC Gütersloh (CW) Preußen Münster (RW) Württemberg TSG Balingen |

## Format
### Participation

The DFB-Pokal began with a round of 64 teams. The 36 teams of the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga, along with the top four finishers of the 3. Liga automatically qualified for the tournament. Of the remaining slots, 21 were given to the cup winners of the regional football associations, the Verbandspokal. The three remaining slots were given to the three regional associations with the most men's teams, which were Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Westphalia. The best-placed amateur team of the Regionalliga Bayern was given the spot for Bavaria. For Lower Saxony, the Lower Saxony Cup was split into two paths: one for 3. Liga and Regionalliga Nord teams, and the other for amateur teams. The winners of each path qualified. For Westphalia, the spot was rotated each season between the best-placed Westphalian team of the Regionalliga West and the best-placed amateur team of the Oberliga Westfalen. For the 2023–24 DFB-Pokal, this spot was awarded to a team from the Regionalliga. As every team was entitled to participate in local tournaments which qualified for the association cups, every team could in principle compete in the DFB-Pokal. Reserve teams and combined football sections were not permitted to enter, along with no two teams of the same association or corporation.

### Draw

The draws for the different rounds were conducted as follows:
For the first round, the participating teams were split into two pots of 32 teams each. The first pot contained all teams which qualified through their regional cup competitions, the best four teams of the 3. Liga, and the bottom four teams of the 2. Bundesliga. Every team from this pot was drawn to a team from the second pot, which contained all remaining professional teams (all the teams of the Bundesliga and the remaining fourteen 2. Bundesliga teams). The teams from the first pot were set as the home team in the process.
The two-pot scenario was also applied for the second round, with the remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) in the first pot and the remaining Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga teams in the other pot. Once again, the 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) served as hosts. This time the pots did not have to be of equal size though, depending on the results of the first round. Theoretically, it was even possible that there could be only one pot, if all of the teams from one of the pots from the first round beat all the others in the second pot. Once one pot was empty, the remaining pairings were drawn from the other pot with the first-drawn team for a match serving as hosts.
For the remaining rounds, the draw was conducted from just one pot. Any remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) were the home team if drawn against a professional team. In every other case, the first-drawn team served as hosts.

### Match rules

Teams met in one game per round. Matches took place for 90 minutes, with two halves of 45 minutes each. If still tied after regulation, 30 minutes of extra time was played, consisting of two periods of 15 minutes each. If the score was still level after this, the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out. A coin toss decided who took the first penalty. A maximum of nine players could be listed on the substitute bench, while a maximum of five substitutions were allowed. However, each team was only given three opportunities to make substitutions, with a fourth opportunity in extra time, excluding substitutions made at half-time, before the start of extra time and at half-time in extra time. From the round of 16 onward, a video assistant referee was appointed for all DFB-Pokal matches. Though technically possible, VAR was not used for home matches of Bundesliga clubs prior to the round of 16 in order to provide a uniform approach to all matches.

### Suspensions

If a player received five yellow cards in the competition, he was suspended from the next cup match. Similarly, receiving a second yellow card suspended a player from the next cup match. If a player received a direct red card, they were suspended a minimum of one match, but the German Football Association reserved the right to increase the suspension.

### International qualification

The winners of the DFB-Pokal earned automatic qualification for the league phase of next season's edition of the UEFA Europa League. If they had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League through position in the Bundesliga, then the spot went to the team in sixth place, and the league's UEFA Conference League play-off round spot to the team in seventh place. The winners also hosted the DFL-Supercup at the start of the next season, and faced the champions of the previous year's Bundesliga, unless the same team won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal, completing a double. In that case, the runners-up of the Bundesliga took the spot instead.

## Schedule

All draws were generally held on a Sunday evening after each round (unless noted otherwise).
The rounds of the 2023–24 competition were scheduled as follows:
| Round | Draw date | Matches |
| First round | 18 June 2023 | 11–14 August & 26–27 September 2023 |
| Second round | 1 October 2023 | 31 October – 1 November 2023 |
| Round of 16 | 5 November 2023 | 5–6 December 2023 |
| Quarter-finals | 10 December 2023 | 30–31 January & 6–7 February 2024 |
| Semi-finals | 11 February 2024 | 2–3 April 2024 |
| Final | 11 February 2024 | 25 May 2024 at Olympiastadion, Berlin |

## Matches

A total of sixty-three matches took place, starting with the first round on 11 August 2023 and culminating with the final on 25 May 2024 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.
Times up to 28 October 2023 and from 31 March 2024 are CEST (UTC+2). Times from 29 October 2023 to 30 March 2024 are CET (UTC+1).

### First round

The draw for the first round was held on 18 June 2023, with Sarah Vogel drawing the matches. Thirty of the thirty-two matches took place from 11 to 14 August 2023. The remaining two matches, involving the participants of the 2023 DFL-Supercup (played on 12 August), took place from 26 to 27 September 2023.

### Second round

The draw for the second round was held on 1 October 2023, with Shkodran Mustafi drawing the matches. The sixteen matches took place on 31 October and 1 November 2023.

### Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 5 November 2023, with Denise Schindler drawing the matches. The eight matches took place on 5 and 6 December 2023.

### Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 10 December 2023, with Jens Nowotny drawing the matches. The four matches took place from 30 to 31 January, 6 February and 12 March 2024.

### Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals was held on 11 February 2024, with Béla Réthy drawing the matches. The two matches took place on 2 and 3 April 2024.

### Final

The final took place on 25 May 2024 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.

## Top goalscorers

The following were the top scorers of the DFB-Pokal, sorted first by number of goals, and then alphabetically if necessary. Goals scored in penalty shoot-outs are not included.
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals |
| 1 | Amine Adli | Bayer Leverkusen | 5 |
| 2 | Filip Bilbija | SC Paderborn | 4 |
| 2 | Marcel Hartel | FC St. Pauli | 4 |
| 2 | Fabian Reese | Hertha BSC | 4 |
| 5 | Kai Brünker | 1. FC Saarbrücken | 3 |
| 5 | Robin Hack | Borussia Mönchengladbach | 3 |
| 5 | Adam Hložek | Bayer Leverkusen | 3 |
| 5 | Bakery Jatta | Hamburger SV | 3 |
| 5 | Ísak Jóhannesson | Fortuna Düsseldorf | 3 |
| 5 | Haris Tabaković | Hertha BSC | 3 |
| 5 | Richmond Tachie | 1. FC Kaiserslautern | 3 |
| 5 | Can Uzun | 1. FC Nürnberg | 3 |
| 5 | Florian Wirtz | Bayer Leverkusen | 3 |